I was not looking for an amp as I have a nice vintage 50 year amp at home with a ten inch speaker. Yet occasionally I will have a go of another amp to see how it compares to my little gem. I saw the ‘Excelsior’ in my local music shop and thought "Lets have a laugh and see how wrong they have got this." After all, I thought at the very low UK prices there is no way this could sound any good. Well I played it and not even wanting a new amp I bought one! It sounded very much like my vintage amp only fuller because of the 15-inch speaker. For those that like a warm, large, clean vintage tone, look no further. I play Blues and could not ask for anything better! I highly suspect this would also make a great Jazz amp too. Maybe even a very good surf, rockabilly or country on the bright switch setting!
This amp sounds so good. It's fine just playing clean and worth the money for this experience alone. However the vibrato sounds great also, more useable than the one on my vintage amp! Then I tried plugging in my pedals and the Classic T Rex reverb pedal adds yet another amazing dimension. My wah sounded great and my overdrives sounded amazing. Anything I threw at it - it loves pedals. It is just what I needed - a warm clean amp that can be taken right over the top with your favorite pedals. Having said that you can just turn this amp full up and turn the volume down on your guitar until it's time for the solo (I have not tried this yet though ) At the moment this is a house and recording amp but I am very hopeful this will also be a really good small gig live amp! I love it and half suspect for someone to knock to door and ask for it back saying sorry fender got the price wrong. It's worth three times this price!
The Excelsior is not a do it all amp with switchable channels, high gain options or even a reverb so is not going to be for all tastes. However for the would be Purist that does not have the huge sums of money to buy that vintage tone. The over used term this is a no brainer comes to mind!
There are things, which are not to my taste - the colors, for example, would not be my choice and the bright switch sounds a little unnatural to my years. However I just leave it on the Dark switch, as this sounds so natural to me just like my guitar pickups being amplified! These are just small preferences though that pale into insignificance to the fact that I now own what I feel is a great amp at any price, never mind the small amount I paid! Love it!!!!

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